COUPLES in Cambridgeshire desperate for a child are being given new hope by the launch of a ground-breaking initiative that will provide free access to a comprehensive package of fertility treatment.

From May 1 NHS East of England will be the first region in the country to fund ALL eligible couples for up to six attempts at achieving a pregnancy with fertility treatment, thus removing the current IVF postcode lottery where couples in adjacent towns are offered widely differing services.

For more details about the 'First Steps' seminars please see the website http://www.bourn-hall-clinic.co.uk/ or call 01954 717219.

Read more: http://www.cambs24.co.uk/content/cambs24/news/story.aspx?brand=Cambs24&category=---CambsNews&tBrand=HertsCambsOnline&tCategory=newslatestC24&itemid=WEED28%20Apr%202009%2012%3A03%3A34%3A827

In October 2007, a British woman whose eggs were matured in a lab rather than her body gave birth to healthy twins, marking the U.K. debut of a procedure that could spare women using assisted reproduction from potentially dangerous fertility drugs.

During in vitro fertilization—IVF, the standard assisted-reproduction technique—women take drugs to stimulate egg production and maturation. The eggs are then harvested, fertilized, and implanted. The drugs, however, sometimes cause a condition called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which in rare cases can be life-threatening.

During in vitro maturation, or IVM, immature eggs are removed and nurtured in a lab before being fertilized and implanted. Only one dose of fertility drugs is required.

The technique is still immature: The BBC reports that, of 2 million children born worldwide through IVF, around 400 were produced through IVM; success rates of lab-matured eggs are currently lower than those used in IVF. But for women who are especially sensitive to fertility drugs, or want to freeze eggs for future use, IVM may be a good option.

Source: http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/2009/04/27/Sparing-Women-From-Fertility-Drugs

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The importance of folate, zinc and antioxidants in the pathogenesis and prevention of subfertility

TAMPA — Faith and Ryan Shears for a long time shared nothing of their struggles, coping quietly as their family and closest friends invited them to celebrate baby showers, baptisms and 1-year-old birthday parties.

They want to be parents, too. So far, however, the New Port Richey couple's journey has led only to doctor's appointments and events like Saturday's New Beginnings Fertility Conference.

FAST FACTS
Success of assisted reproduction
ART and IVF: Assisted reproductive technology, which generally involves in vitro fertilization, when a woman's eggs are extracted and fertilized in a laboratory. The resulting embryos are transferred to a woman's uterus.
Success rate: 29 percent of cycles using fresh, nondonor eggs or embryos resulted in live births, 2006.
Multiple births: 29 percent of live births were twins, and 2 percent triplets or more.
Cost: In vitro fertilization can cost $10,000 to $12,000 per cycle, plus medication costs, which can run $2,000 to $5,000.
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lotus Blossom Consulting

Read more:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/article995447.ece

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Phoenix, AZ (PRWEB) April 22, 2009 -- The World Egg Bank® (TWEB), the leading egg donor bank, today announced the immediate availability of the Donor Egg Recipient Financing Program to assist donor egg recipients seeking to delay payment of their costs for up to two years. The program designed by TWEB and Home National Bank (HNB - Scottsdale, AZ) is unique in the fertility services field after the few available options, such as Capital One, are no longer viable with the tightening of available consumer credit.

"Our clients have an urgent need to move forward toward their pregnancy goal, and unfortunately finances often get in the way. In today's difficult economic environment, finding financing is particularly challenging for many couples. Waiting for better times is not an option," said Diana Thomas, President and Founder of The World Egg Bank®.

"Home National Bank understands family values and goals. Home National Bank provided financing to The World Egg Bank® because they saw us bring the dreams of prospective parents within reach. With HNB's help we are scaling our already unique roster of screened donors and we are increasing immediate availability of frozen donor eggs. However, recipients too need help in times of tight credit and HNB recognized that our recipients are uniformly serious, committed and reliable individuals of character," said TWEB's CEO Marco Messina.

TheWorldEggBank.com has the largest inventory in the world of frozen donor eggs available for immediate shipment anywhere, and has the experience of shipping worldwide since 2005. TWEB is actively expanding its team to ensure the highest standards of safety and service, the largest selection of donors, immediate delivery and peace of mind for egg recipients and infertile couples throughout the world.

About The World Egg Bank:
The World Egg Bank is the result of the merger of X and Y Consulting Inc. (XYC) and Cryo Eggs International L.P., (CEI) in February 2009. The World Egg Bank provides fertility services to women in need of donated eggs to achieve pregnancy. Over the last 12 years the company has operated the leading match-making service in the US and internationally by bringing donors and recipients together. In 2004, CEI became the first frozen egg bank in the world. In 2005, the first child conceived in the US from a frozen egg bank's egg was born under the care of the founders. The World Egg Bank scientific team and Scientific Advisory Board include the leaders (Dr. Jeffrey Boldt, Dr. Michael Tucker and Dr. Simon Fishel) of oocyte cryopreservation (the technology for freezing and thawing human eggs).

MONDAY, April 6 (HealthDay News) -- A hormone-antioxidant combination therapy appears to improve sperm count and motility in infertile men, according to an Egyptian study.

The research included 60 men eligible for infertility treatment. They were randomly selected to take either the combination treatment of clomiphene citrate and vitamin E or a placebo for six months. By the end of the study, their partner's pregnancy rate was about 37 percent among men who'd taken the combination therapy, compared with 13 percent for those in the placebo group.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/hscout/2009/04/06/hscout625605.html

A couple of months into our relationship, my future wife mentioned that her doctor once predicted a slight possibility that she might not be able to have children.

What I didn't expect to learn -- and what no guy wants to hear -- is that, Houston, there's a problem, but it's not with your wife.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/17/dad.infertility/

Local acupuncturists, who have noticed an increasing trend of patients looking to stimulate fertility, said that using a combination of acupuncture therapy with in vitro fertilization may help women finally get pregnant, and research seems to suggest that the technique can help.

Read more: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=125941

April 20, 2009 --Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York (RMA of New York) (http://www.rmany.com ) has announced the launch of evening appointments to new patients wishing to schedule a consultation at its main location in Midtown Manhattan. RMA of New York offers comprehensive treatment options including second opinion consultations, intrauterine inseminations (IUI), in vitro fertilization (IVF), preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), and oocyte cryopreservation (egg freezing). These services are provided by the award winning clinical team (http://www.rmany.com/our-team.aspx ) with extensive experience in reproductive endocrinology, urology and complementary care.

For more information, please call 212.756.5777 or visit http://www.rmany.com

Read more: http://www.newdesignworld.com/press/story/12470

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Dr. Wojo: During nearly every emergency department shift, I deal with genitourinary problems and pregnancy complications. Usually, common infections are found. But sometimes, less common infections -- such as bacterial mycoplasma and ureaplasma infections -- are diagnosed.

What are these infections? Mycoplasmas are some of the smallest living organisms that, unlike most bacteria, do not have cell walls; instead, they live within other live cells. A close relative is ureaplasma. Both of these organisms can be found in up to 70 percent of sexually active adults. But when there is significant overgrowth, problems can occur, such as pelvic inflammatory disease, urethritis and pregnancy loss.

Read more: http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20090420/WDH04/904200318



Recent Keyword Searches: pcod more causes_risk_factors, can i get pregnant at 48, does your can you get pregnant at 40, can a forty five year old woman conceive?, conception age 43

Local infertile couples are needed for an hour long meeting with researchers from Penn State to examine how infertility impacts relationships with friends and family.

Researchers from Penn State University will be in NJ through the end of April to meet with infertile couples for one hour. At the meeting, couples will be asked to complete survyes about how infertility has impacted their relationships with friends and family. Couples will be compensated $60 cash for their time, and be entered into a $500 raffle. Please visit http://www.pennstateinfertility.com/ for more details or email Keli Steuber at krs277@psu.edu to schedule or ask questions.

Source: http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20090416/GETPUBLISHED/904160389/1006/news01

REMAINING LOCATIONS:
NJ Area / Phila. Area: April 11th - April 18th / April 23rd- April 30th
New York City Area: April 19th - April 22nd
Washington, DC Area: May 1st - May 3rd
Central Pennslyvania: May 4st - May 15th

More Infertility Studies: Do you have PCOS and want to have a baby?

Recent Keyword Searches: what's the oldest that it is safe to get pregnant, can you get pregnant at age 48, can menopausal women get pregnant, how to get pregnant after 44 years of age, why are women delaying pregnancy to later in life

Help yourself and your soon-to-be-conceived child with these pregnancy detox tips.

If budding branches have you in a trying-to-get-pregnant mood, here are a few thoughts -- from The Complete Organic Pregnancy -- on what you might want to add to your regimen and purge from your life as you go at it. (Here are some more tips on how to get pregnant.)

1. Up Your Nutrient Intake

Take a prenatal vitamin. Folic acid is especially important at this phase of life as it can help prevent neural tube defects even before you know you're pregnant.

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/organic-parenting/pregnancy-detox-470415

Eating the right foods can counter ovulatory infertility.

Approximately 10 million couples have sought help for infertility, and delays in conception are common today. A number of factors ranging from endometriosis and pelvic inflammatory disease in women to medication and drug use in males contribute to infertility. In addition to fertility testing, healthy diet and lifestyle can increase your chances of success.

Read more: http://www.tasteforlife.com/content/default.asp?artid=2163&title=Foods_for_Fertility

A new study challenges the long-held belief that female mammals start life with a limited number of eggs and cannot produce new ones after birth. For the first time, a Chinese group has found mouse cells that produce new eggs when transplanted into sterilized mice and give rise to normal offspring. The findings are already inflaming the debate over when and how female mammals generate eggs; if confirmed, they could offer hope of new options to treat human infertility.

Read more: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/413/1?rss=1

In what raises hopes of infertile women becoming mothers and allowing those healthy to put their motherhood on hold without worrying about menopause, scientists have discovered a way to create eggs in sterile ovaries.

A team at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai has used the technique which involves transplanting stem cells into the ovaries to produce new eggs in infertile women or women who've passed the usual age of conception.

Read more: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090090691&ch=413200921900PM

These lines of evidence suggest that high levels of blood sugar-disruptive carbohydrates in the diet might be bad news for female fertility.

The extent to which a food raises blood sugar can be measured and is expressed as its glycemic index (GI). However, the extent to which a food disrupts blood sugar and insulin will depend not just on its GI, but how much we eat of it. One way to get an idea of the overall effect of a food is to take its GI and multiply it by the amount of carbohydrate found in a standard portion of food. Divide this by 100 and we have a measurement known as the glycemic load (GL).

Read more: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/15212/

WANT to boost your chances of having a baby? It can be as simple as cleaning up your act.

In Australia, it is estimated that one in six couples are infertile, a diagnosis reached when a couple have been trying unsuccessfully to conceive for six to 12 months.

But there are natural ways to boost fertility at any age, starting with simple dietary and lifestyle changes.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25314228-5006012,00.html

(CBS) More and more women are waiting longer to have children, but Mother Nature's deadline can't be ignored: The start of menopause means the end of the possibility that they can conceive.

So what if women could take a simple blood test that could tell them, with a fair amount of accuracy, how long they have before menopause sets in?

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/11/earlyshow/health/main4936718.shtml

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Sunday, April 12, 2009 - Scientists have produced strong new evidence challenging one of the most fundamental assumptions in biology: that female mammals, including women, are born with all the eggs they will ever have.

In a provocative set of experiments involving mice, Chinese researchers have shown for the first time that an adult mammal can harbor primitive cells in her ovaries that can become new eggs and produce healthy offspring, they reported today.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/12/AR2009041200967.html

Picture by mmq22
ABSTRACT

Background Implantation of the conceptus is a key step in pregnancy, but little is known about the time of implantation or the relation between the time of implantation and the outcome of pregnancy.

Results There were 199 conceptions, for 95 percent of which (189) we had sufficient data for analysis. Of these 189 pregnancies, 141 (75 percent) lasted at least six weeks past the last menstrual period, and the remaining 48 pregnancies (25 percent) ended in early loss. Among the pregnancies that lasted 6 weeks or more, the first appearance of chorionic gonadotropin occurred 6 to 12 days after ovulation; 118 women (84 percent) had implantation on day 8, 9, or 10. The risk of early pregnancy loss increased with later implantation (P<0.001).>

Picture by TBA_kmanright
Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), one of the iatrogenic complications resulting from follicle stimulating medications administered during fertility treatment, affects up to 10% of women undergoing IVF.

Photo by xsupergrrrlx
Early detection of pregnancy could be of great clinical significance and aid in modifying the surveillance and treatment strategies after assisted reproduction techniques.

Picture by Mogness
Ovulation induction: Medication is administered to cause the release of more eggs at one time. Typically, when fertility difficulties are suspected, this is a first approach.
Cost: $100 to about $3,000 or more.

Intrauterine insemination (IUI): Semen is collected and inserted through the vagina and cervix into the uterus with a catheter. Often combined with ovulation induction.
Cost: $1,000 to $2,000.

In-vitro fertilization (IVF): Eggs are harvested from the mother; then eggs and sperm from a partner are combined in a lab. The fertilized egg is placed back into the woman's body to develop. This can be done using a donated egg or donated sperm.
Cost: At least $10,000 to $15,000.

Gamete intrafallopian tube transfer (GIFT): After ovulation, eggs are harvested from the mother. Sperm and egg are placed beside one another in a woman's fallopian tube in hopes that fertilization will occur.
Cost: $15,000 to $20,000.

Embryo adoption: A fertilized egg from one couple is "adopted" by another couple and then implanted for development.
Cost: $6,000 to $18,000.

Source: Cost estimates from "Budgeting for Infertility," by Evelina Weidman Sterling and Angie Best-Boss, researchers on fertility matters. Their Web site is www.myfertilityplan.com.